Administrative State Updates

[Chop]

Federal workers brace for Trump with morale ‘as low as it’s ever been’

President-elect has expressed desire for mass firings of civil service workers to be replaced with political appointees

www.theguardian.com

The president-elect and his allies have expressed support for the mass firing of civil service workers and abolishing certain government agencies upon his return to the White House.


Officials at the heart of Trump’s first administration have spoken of purging thousands of federal workers by using controversial powers to reshape the bureaucracy. Now, inside dozens of government agencies, staff are bracing for Trump’s second administration.




“It’s pretty bleak,” said Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents 110,000 employees at various agencies around the US. “It’s pretty grim.”

 

[Chop]

The former president attacked federal employees on the campaign trail, claiming they were “destroying this country” in an August podcast interview. “They’re crooked people, they’re dishonest people,” he said. “They’re going to be held accountable.”

 

[Chop]

Trump wants to fire thousands of government workers. Liberals are preparing to fight back if he wins

Former President Donald Trump has plans to radically reshape the federal government if he returns to the White House, from promising to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to firing tens of thousands of government workers.

apnews.com

Trump at the end of his term sought to reclassify thousands of the more than 2 million federal employees, stripping them of job protections and making them at-will employees under a new classification known as “Schedule F.” Around 4,000 federal employees are now considered political appointees who typically change with each administration. Creating Schedule F could have increased that more than tenfold.

Biden revoked that order but Trump says he’ll revive it should he win. And conservatives preparing thick policy books are strategizing on how to fire employees to make more room for Trump appointees.

 

[Chop]

 

[Chop]

A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies | USAGov

Get contact information for U.S. federal government agencies, departments, corporations, instrumentalities, and government-sponsored enterprises. Find websites, email, phone numbers, addresses, and more.

www.usa.gov

There's a bunch of them...

A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies​

 

[Chop]

And here's a new agency Biden/Harris are trying to import from England and establish here before Trump takes office again:

 

[HornHuskerDad]

A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies

WOW! There is a long list of agencies. And the prime objective of a federal agency is to assure its continued existence (and grow its size and influence, if possible) - solving the problem for which it was created is secondary. The Number One objective for any federal agency executive - preserve and grow his empire!

 

[Facing Addiction]

 

[Chop]

I worked a Summer in DC at one of the agencies. It’s definitely a very low stress environment compared to for-profit private enterprise. Technically, they do some work, but it’s at a very slow pace. Projects that should take 2 hours take them 8 hours without better quality results. Gov’t employees really “coast”. While it was certainly a “kush” job,
It was boring, soul draining, and depressing.

If you had competent go-getters in there, they could cut the staff to 1/3 or less of its current level and get the same amount and quality of work done. You could pay the remaining 1/3 of the employees 150% or more of what they used to make for an incentive to work hard. You’d still be saving $.

Big problem—corrupt public employee unions, and it’s way too hard to fire people.

Now there are a handful of elite agencies that attract many of the top people. They’re the ones that do the “cool” stuff. NASA (especially their scientists and engineers), CIA (especially their spies and field people), etc.

 

[Chop]

The swamp attracts people who don’t want to work very hard, or take risks.

 

[Chop]

"Nixon went in to drain the swamp."
"The swamp drained him."

Nixon brought us the EPA and OSHA.

Woodrow Wilson was the ultimate author of all this.

Obviously, FDR created and expanded much of the administrative state as well. Same with LBJ.

But Nixon--he went into office with the earnest intent to slash the administrative state and drain the swamp, but the swamp captured him, drained him and he ended up actually expanding the administrative state. The swamp dwellers "rolled him." Too many "yes" men and swamp proponents surrounding him and whispering ideas in his ear. [Also Nixon had a personality issue--he was unconfident and unsure of himself and thought he didn't belong. Too easy to compromise and prey on his desire for approval by high society and the powerful.]

 

[Chop]

 

[SabreHorn]

I once had a person that worked for me, and I helped him get a better paying job with better insurance which he needed for family members with ongoing health problems. A few years later his firm was taken over by a government agency. After a couple of months, his supervisor called him in and told him he had to change his work habits. "You are used to working in the private sector; you make a list of ten things you want to accomplish tomorrow. You now work for the Federal Government; instead of ten things in one day, you now focus on doing one thing in ten days. You're making us look bad and will work us out of jobs. Change the way you do things or I'll have to let you go."

 

[Chop]

"You are used to working in the private sector; you make a list of ten things you want to accomplish tomorrow. You now work for the Federal Government; instead of ten things in one day, you now focus on doing one thing in ten days. You're making us look bad and will work us out of jobs. Change the way you do things or I'll have to let you go."

Exactly!

People who haven't seen it first hand don't realize just how bad it is in the federal agencies. It's not that these fed agency employees don't work at all, it's that they work at a very low and lackadaisical pace. They really coast. Also, there's very little accountability. If you ran a business like this, you wouldn't last long.

Again, there are exceptions to this, such as the elite agencies like CIA, NASA, US Attorney Prosecutors, etc. I'm talking about the hundreds of thousands of kushy-job desk jockeys. They're on cruise control collecting paychecks and way-above-market benefits. Their numbers should be cut by 60% or more with private sector management brought in to fix them.

 

[SabreHorn]

Worst example of government management style was the S&L crisis. IF the S&L crisis had been turned over to the private sector, it would have turned a profit for the tax payors of America. The government and their grunts wanted the failures, and don't get me started on the "contracts" issued for interim resolution. The only government employee that knew how to "follow the money" has unfortunately passed, and DC didn't want him doing his job.

 

[Chop]

Worst example of government management style was the S&L crisis. IF the S&L crisis had been turned over to the private sector, it would have turned a profit for the tax payors of America. The government and their grunts wanted the failures, and don't get me started on the "contracts" issued for interim resolution. The only government employee that knew how to "follow the money" has unfortunately passed, and DC didn't want him doing his job.

Yeah.

And a lot of the S&L crisis was of the government's own making.